5 easy ways to make a hacker’s life harder

Opinion: With cyber security, the trick is to avoid becoming an easy target

By

JuricaDujmovic

Columnist

Shutterstock

It’s really this simple: Once your data is online, it’s ripe for the taking.

That reality became painfully clear to more than 40 million Target Corp.
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customers, whose credit card numbers got hijacked over the Christmas holidays. In an attempt to salvage the department-store chain’s reputation, the board yesterday removed CEO Gregg Steinhafel. Don’t be fooled, though. That was only a PR maneuver and, having come five months late, a bad one too.

What happened to Target’s customers occurs every day across the world. A particularly disturbing breach is the recently discovered Heartbleed bug. It enables a hacker to eavesdrop on your secure communications — be it email, web or instant messaging — and collect your posted data without leaving a trace. That includes passwords, keys, codes, credit card numbers — you name it.

But the rabbit hole goes deeper. The scary part isn’t the fact that Heartbleed has been uncovered. What is truly unsettling is that the bug existed unfettered for years, and even served as a data-feeding ground for both hackers and government organizations, such as the U.S. National Security Agency.

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigns

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This is where the story almost enters the domain of sci-fi. For years (decades?), the government and other entities have been collecting data about you. And I’m not talking about simple stuff you can easily find missing — credit cards data, IDs and such. I’m talking about your social interactions, ethical values, physical movements, taste in food and music, favorite brands — everything you have ever shared online.

And, as we know, sharing — even oversharing — what we think and do has become commonplace. So what would hackers do with all that information? It’s not as if the data could be used in creating complex algorithms that could predict social change or uncover subtle ways to manipulate the population at large, right? Right?!

OK, let’s leave the realm of conspiracy theories. The cruel reality, still, is that your data is never safe. Here’s a simple explanation why: Even if you have the best privacy-protection software installed on your computer, the fact is that whomever you’re doing business with could be compromised, which, in turn, makes you vulnerable as well.

So what can you really do to protect yourself? Here are five tips that make a hacker’s job harder:

1. When buying online, use a prepaid debit card. That way, in case your card number is stolen, the amount of money withdrawn is limited to what you have on the card. Some have monthly fees, so shop for ones without any. A well-known option is Bluebird by American Express
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)

2. Use authenticator devices to log into sensitive services. Authenticators (or security tokens) are devices that use complex algorithms to generate one-time passwords, making it that much harder for hackers to break into your account.

3. Frequently sweep your system using an anti-virus software. Don’t forget to sweep for malware and rootkits too.

4. When posting on social networks (or anywhere else, for that matter), consider this rule: If you wouldn’t say it publicly, don’t say it at all. This goes especially for Facebook
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which never deletes data it has on its users. So don’t tell everyone you’re going on vacation — in doing so, you may be informing burglars that your home is vacant.

5. Break the habit of creating relevant passwords (that is, dates of important events in your life, your loved ones, etc.). Such data can easily be found online and used in hacker attacks. Use password generators such as this one.

Remember that defending yourself with protection is a must, but always bear in mind that nothing is foolproof.

Has your data ever been stolen? Or do you have your own tips? Tell us in the comment section below.

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